This historical-comparative study will document the environments, organizational fields, and change processes affecting """"""""anonymous"""""""" organizations over time. The term of anonymous organization is used to describe the somewhat transparent, but formal, corporate entities utilizing the twelve traditions as organizational principles, i.e. Narcotics Anonymous (NA) and Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Anonymous organizations are believed to have avoided bureaucratization and oligarchization by holding firm to the operating policies described in the """"""""twelve traditions."""""""" On-site searches of archival and historical documents are planned to explore the origins of the twelve traditions and their functions in providing organizational guidance. Data collected from Internet sources will provide information on more recent corporate business practices. Knowledge of current problems will help to understand the organizational responses available to the growing anonymous organization. This data will be used to construct a comparative natural history of the two anonymous organizations for the period of 1935-1995. For both AA and NA, critical junctures in each organization's history will be documented. Specific environmental shifts and mechanisms of change, e.g., professionalization, responses to uncertainty, or problems of legitimacy influencing each of the anonymous organizations will be analyzed. Based on institutional theory, all organizations, including, anonymous organizations, eventually encounter conducive or constraining environments that demand adaptation. In this proposal, I will question whether the influence of Managed care on health services has caused increased """"""""structuration"""""""" in the field of treatment providers. Next, I will explore whether those changes are forcing anonymous organizations to adapt and become isomorphic-similar in structure-with more traditional forms of organization. The long-term objective of my research involves studying the """"""""corporatization"""""""" of the anonymous organizations and its effects on the delivery of substance abuse services.
